Hi Lorenzo Asso,

Transcoding to HDV wasn't getting there for the "goodness" of the CODEC. Some folks didn't have access to AVCHD editing software, but did have access to HDV editing software. This was one way in which they could both remove pull down and encode the AVCHD to an "easy-to-edit" HDV content.

As for the conversion, while you're right in the lossy CODEC in the HDV long GOP, but I also think that's an old chestnut in that the conversion is going to lose sufficient quality to warrant not doing it as to avoid it rather than having a bad editing experience. If you can have a smoother editing experience with your NLE with HDV, I would recommend converting.

If AVCHD is smooth already, that's great.

Most systems will be AVCHD capable soon, of course. I'm looking forward to it.

My best,

Mike